Perfectly preserved lion cubs that died 44,000 years ago ‘after being abandoned by mum’ found in Siberia
A PAIR of cave lion cubs that died up to 44,000 years ago were found perfectly preserved in the Siberian permafrost.
One starved to death and the other may have been crushed by falling rocks, both having possibly been abandoned by their mothers.
She has been renamed from Spartak to Sparta after further research revealed the truth about her origins.
It emerged that she died of hunger, likely after being abandoned by her mother.
Alternatively, the cub's mum may have simply failed to find food, or had been killed herself.
"She starved to death," said Dr Albert Protopopov, an expert on frozen remains who worked on the remains.
"We wondered why she looked so skinny when she was found, and then tomography of her internal organs showed there was no fat.
"It was the most extreme stage of starvation."
Sparta was found frozen 10 metres away another larger cave lion cub named Boris.
Boris died roughly 44,000 years ago, and was aged just two or three weeks when he died.
He may also have been left by his mother inside a cave, and was possibly killed by collapsing cave rock.
"We found visible traces of internal injuries, which we believe could have been caused by rock falling on him," said Protopopov.
Eurasion cave lion – the key facts
Here's what you need to know...
- The Eurasian cave lion, or Panthera spelaea, is an extinct species
- It evolved in Europe less than 600,000 years ago, and is genetically distinct from the modern lion found in Africa and Asia
- The oldest bone fragments of Eurasian cave lions date back around 62,400 years
- The species finally became extinct around 13,000 years ago
- They would have stood roughly 3.9 feet tall with a body length of around 6.9 feet
- Experts say the species may have been around 10% larger than modern lions
- They were probably similar in colour to modern lions, although slightly lighter
- They roamed from Europe to Alaska over the Bering land bridge, and were even found in Spain and the UK
Scientists are continuing to test on cave lions, which were the largest predators after bears in the area.
However, lions were more common because the areas was savanna at the time – while bears preferred woods.
They now hope to bring similar creatures back to life using lion DNA and cloning techniques.
"Cave lion cubs are superbly preserved, you can even see their whiskers, and we are hoping to fetch a lot more information from them," Protopopov said.
"There is a very realistic chance to recreate cave lions and it would be a lot easier than to clone a woolly mammoth.
"Cave and modern lions separated only 300,000 years ago, in other words they are different species of the same genus.
"It means that we can take DNA of the modern African lion and use it to recreate cave lions. It would be a lot easier than the mammoths.
"But if we find methods to bring back woolly mammoths it would be a revolution and a pay back by humans who helped extinguishing of so many species."
In other news, a Siberian puppy frozen 14,300 years was found "perfectly preserved" and may have been a pet.
The world's "oldest animal" was recently revealed by ancient fat from a 558million-year-old Russian fossil.
A mysterious 520million-year-old sea monster with tentacles coming out of its mouth has been discovered.
And the world's oldest animal footprints reveal a strange burrowing creature that lived 550million years ago.
What do you make of this discovery? Let us know in the comments!
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